Modeling nitrogen loadings from agricultural soils in southwest China with modified DNDC

Degradation of water quality has been widely observed in China, and loadings of nitrogen (N) and other nutrients from agricultural systems play a key role in the water contamination. Process‐based biogeochemical models have been applied to quantify nutrient loading from nonpoint sources at the watershed scale. However, this effort is often hindered by the fact that few existing biogeochemical models of nutrient cycling are able to simulate the two‐dimensional soil hydrology. To overcome this challenge, we launched a new attempt to incorporate two fundamental hydrologic features, the Soil Conservation Service curve and the Modified Universal Soil Loss Equation functions, into a biogeochemistry model, Denitrification‐Decomposition (DNDC). These two features have been widely utilized to quantify surface runoff and soil erosion in a suite of hydrologic models. We incorporated these features in the DNDC model to allow the biogeochemical and hydrologic processes to exchange data at a daily time step. By including the new features, DNDC gained the additional ability to simulate both horizontal and vertical movements of water and nutrients. The revised DNDC was tested against data sets observed in a small watershed dominated by farmlands in a mountainous area of southwest China. The modeled surface runoff flow, subsurface drainage flow, sediment yield, and N loading were in agreement with observations. To further observe the behaviors of the new model, we conducted a sensitivity test with varied climate, soil, and management conditions. The results indicated that precipitation was the most sensitive factor determining the rate of N loading from the tested site. A Monte Carlo test was conducted to quantify the potential uncertainty derived by variations in four selected input parameters. This study demonstrates that it is feasible and effective to use enhanced biogeochemical models such as DNDC for quantifying N loadings by incorporating basic hydrological features into the model framework

Investigation on Combination of Airflow Disturbance and Sprinkler Irrigation for Horticultural Crop Frost Protection

Frost tends to be detrimental to the growth and development of horticultural crops, leading to yield or quality reduction with sizable economic losses. Therefore, it is very important to develop frost protection technology for horticultural crops. In this study, the development of frost protection technology is reviewed, and the research of mechanized frost protection technology in recent years is analyzed. In view of the poor frost protection effect of some single mechanized frost protection technology, the combination frost protection technology is put forward. The combination frost protection technology with airflow disturbance and sprinkler irrigation is discussed and analyzed

Product assignment recommender

Effectiveness of software development process depends on the accuracy of data in supporting tools. In particular, a customer issue assigned to a wrong product team takes much longer to resolve (negatively affecting user-perceived quality) and wastes developer effort. In Open Source Software (OSS) and in commercial projects values in issue-tracking systems (ITS) or Customer Relationship Management (CRM) sys-tems are often assigned by non-developers for whom the assignment task is difficult. We propose PAR (Product As-signment Recommender) to estimate the odds that a value in the ITS is incorrect. PAR learns from the past activities in ITS and performs prediction using a logistic regression model. Our demonstrations show how PAR helps develop-ers to focus on fixing real problems, and how it can be used to improve data accuracy in ITS by crowd-sourcing non-developers to verify and correct low-accuracy data. Copyright ? 2014 ACM.EI

Optimizing Methanol Blending Performance of Electronically Controlled Diesel Engines through Fuzzy Analysis

This paper presents a comprehensive optimization approach for enhancing the performance of a methanol/diesel Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) engine. Initially, a hybrid fuel engine combustion chamber model was developed using AVL-FIRE software, and the simulated results were compared with the values obtained from bench tests. An orthogonal experimental design was employed to optimize five key factors, namely methanol blending ratio, EGR rate, injection advance angle, intake pressure, and intake temperature. Evaluation indexes were established, with indicated power and NO emissions assigned weights of 0.35 and 0.65, respectively. The optimal parameter combinations were determined as follows: methanol blending ratio (a1=20%), EGR rate (a2=12.5%), injection advance angle (a3=16.6°CA), intake temperature (a4 = 315.15 K), and intake pressure (a5=0.173 MPa). The indicated power of the optimized configuration reached 47.8 kW, slightly lower than the original 55 kW, while the NO emission mass fraction decreased to 1.9×10-4%, representing a significant reduction of 77.6% compared to the original value of 8.5×10-4%. This optimization methodology demonstrates the effective reduction of NO emissions without compromising power performance in methanol/diesel EGR engines

Meet-in-the-Middle Attacks Revisited: Key-recovery, Collision, and Preimage Attacks

At EUROCRYPT 2021, Bao et al. proposed an automatic method for systematically exploring the configuration space of meet-in-the-middle (MITM) preimage attacks. We further extend it into a constraint-based framework for finding exploitable MITM characteristics in the context of key-recovery and collision attacks by taking the subtle peculiarities of both scenarios into account. Moreover, to perform attacks based on MITM characteristics with nonlinear constrained neutral words, which have not been seen before, we present a procedure for deriving the solution spaces of neutral words without solving the corresponding nonlinear equations or increasing the overall time complexities of the attack. We apply our method to concrete symmetric-key primitives, including SKINNY, ForkSkinny, Romulus, Saturnin, Grostl, Whirlpool, and hashing modes with AES-256. As a result, we identify the first 23-round key-recovery attack on SKINNY-$n$-$3n$ and the first 24-round key-recovery attack on ForkSkinny-$n$-$3n$ in the single-key model. Moreover, improved (pseudo) preimage or collision attacks on round-reduced Whirlpool, Grostl, and hashing modes with AES-256 are obtained. In particular, employing the new representation of the AES key schedule due to Leurent and Pernot (EUROCRYPT 2021), we identify the first preimage attack on 10-round AES-256 hashing

Effect of Injection Advance Angle on the Performance of Butanol-Diesel Dual-fuel Engines

In order to further investigate the performance of the butanol-diesel dual-fuel engine, this paper uses the 4190ZLC-2 marine medium-speed diesel engine as a prototype and establishes a dual-fuel engine high-pressure cycle model using AVL-FIRE simulation software. The injection advance angle was set to 16.6°, 18.6°, 20.6° and 22.6° respectively, and its effect on the performance of the dual-fuel engine was investigated by varying the injection advance angle. The results show that as the injection advance angle increases, the incylinder pressure and temperature also increase. When the injection advance angle is 22.6°CA, compared with the original engine, CO emission is reduced by 16.8%, NO emission is increased by 7.4%, carbon smoke emission is reduced by 16.9%, and the indicated power is 52.6kW, which is increased by 1.8%

Predictive value of systemic immune inflammation index and somatic symptom scale-China in the occurrence of in-hospital major adverse cardiovascular events after first-episode of acute myocardial infarction undergoing PCI

Objective·To investigate the predictive value of systemic inflammatory index (SII) and somatization symptom score-China (SSS-CN) for major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs) in patients with first-episode acute myocardial infarction (AMI) undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).Methods·Three hundred and five first-episode AMI patients who received PCI treatment at the Cardiology Department of Anhui Second People's Hospital from September 2021 to September 2023 were included in the study. Enrolled patients were divided into MACEs group (n=203) and non-MACEs group (n=102) based on whether MACEs events occurred during hospitalization. Descriptive statistical analysis was performed on the general data such as gender, age and laboratory test results of the two groups of patients, and binary Logistic regression test was conducted for statistically significant items according to the analysis results. According to the results, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were further drawn to evaluate the value of SII and SSS-CN in predicting the occurrence of MACEs in hospital. On this basis, coronary syntax score (SS) was combined to evaluate the predictive efficacy of the three combinations, and the optimal cut-off value was determined according to the maximum Jordan index.Results·A total of 203 patients had MACEs events, among whom 179 (88.1%) had heart failure, 16 (7.9%) had severe arrhythmia, 4 (2.0%) had shock, 2 (1.0%) had recurrent myocardial infarction, and 2 (1.0%) died. Compared with the non-MACEs group, the SII and SSS-CN scores in the MACEs group were significantly increased (1 925.86 vs 934.23, 38.57 vs 23.30; both P<0.05). The binary Logistic results suggested that both SII and SSS-CN were independent risk factors for the occurrence of MACEs. The ROC curve results showed that the prediction efficiency was the best when SII ≥ 952, with a sensitivity of 64.0% and a specificity of 62.7% (AUC 0.675, 95% CI 0.612‒0.737). The prediction efficiency was the best when SSS-CN ≥ 28.5, with a sensitivity of 80.7% and a specificity of 77.5% (AUC 0.840, 95% CI 0.794‒0.886). The predictive performance was further improved after combining the syntax score (AUC 0.898, 95% CI 0.862‒0.933).Conclusion·The admission SII and SSS-CN scores of first-episode AMI patients are independent risk factors for the occurrence of MACEs during hospitalization after PCI. Early monitoring of SII changes in first-episode AMI patients after PCI or SSS-CN scores for patients with obvious Somatization symptoms can help identify high-risk patients for the occurrence of MACEs in the hospital

Study on Total Amount Accounting of Pollutants Entering Qinghe River Basin

The calculation of the total amount of pollutants entering the river is the key to the total amount control system. Since non-point source pollution has not been monitored normally and effectively, based on the principle of the balance of input and output of pollutants, the 2009-2013 Qinghe water quality monitoring data, pollution source survey data and monitoring data were used to establish a binary statistics of the total amount of pollutants model. MATLAB software is used to solve the model. The results show that the model has strong data assimilation ability, can accurately calculate the monthly COD inflow into the river, can divide the point source and non-point source pollution load, and can meet the needs of actual research

Current limiting simulation of magneto-biased superconducting fault current limiter (SFCL) applied in 66kV/10kV power substation in China

The short-circuit fault currents in the large capacity transmission lines pose a challenge to the stability and safety of power system. Magneto-biased superconducting fault current limiter (MBSFCL) is with the advantages of two-stage current limiting, self-triggering and fast recovery so that it can effectively reduce the short-circuit fault current when applied to the urban power system. This paper analyzes the operation principle of MBSFCL and establishes a package type magneto-thermal coupled simulation model of MBSFCL based on MATLAB/SIMULINK. A power system model of a 66 kV/10 kV Zhang Tai Zi power substation which is in Liaoning province in China has been established and the grid-connected simulation applied MBSFCL has been achieved. Moreover, the grid-connected test is carried out, and the results of fault current, quench resistance and temperature change are obtained. The comparison of results between simulation and test verifies the accuracy of the simulation model and the application feasibility of MBSFCL

Multi-functional properties of lactic acid bacteria strains derived from canine feces

IntroductionProbiotics, especially Lactic Acid Bacteria (LAB), can promote the health of host animals in a variety of ways, such as regulating intestinal flora and stimulating the host’s immune system.MethodsIn this study, 206 LAB strains were isolated from 48 canine fecal samples. Eleven LAB strains were selected based on growth performance, acid and bile salt resistance. The 11 candidates underwent comprehensive evaluation for probiotic properties, including antipathogenic activity, adhesion, safety, antioxidant capacity, and metabolites.ResultsThe results of the antipathogenic activity tests showed that 11 LAB strains exhibited strong inhibitory effect and co-aggregation ability against four target pathogens (E. coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella braenderup, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa). The results of the adhesion test showed that the 11 LAB strains had high cell surface hydrophobicity, self-aggregation ability, biofilm-forming ability and adhesion ability to the Caco-2 cells. Among them, Lactobacillus acidophilus (L177) showed strong activity in various adhesion experiments. Safety tests showed that 11 LAB strains are sensitive to most antibiotics, with L102, L171, and L177 having the highest sensitivity rate at 85.71%, and no hemolysis occurred in all strains. Antioxidant test results showed that all strains showed good H2O2 tolerance, high scavenging capacity for 1, 1-diphenyl-2-trinitrophenylhydrazine (DPPH) and hydroxyl (OH−). In addition, 11 LAB strains can produce high levels of metabolites including exopolysaccharide (EPS), γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA), and bile salt hydrolase (BSH).DiscussionThis study provides a thorough characterization of canine-derived LAB strains, highlighting their multifunctional potential as probiotics. The diverse capabilities of the strains make them promising candidates for canine dietary supplements, offering a holistic approach to canine health. Further research should validate their efficacy in vivo to ensure their practical application